Hydration, or keeping your body moist, is very important to athletic performance. As little as 2% dehydrated, or just starting to get thirsty, will reduce your athletic performance by 5% to 7%. For archers this means that you hit the center less often about 5% to 7% less. In other words if you expect to hit the yellow/red 20 times out of 20, you will probably miss and hit the blue 1 or 2 times. To keep your scores up, keep drinking fluids.
But when should you drink? How often? Drink enough to keep from getting thirsty is the best answer; but one that does not work. Most Americans are between 2% to 5% dehydrated all the time; so we are not at peak performance levels right away and we feel as if this is normal! Again, so when should we drink? You need between 2-3 quarts of fluids per day. If you day is 16 hours long, you need to drink 4-8 ounces of water per hour.
When you awaken from your night’s sleep, grab an 8 ounce glass of water and drink it. During the day, drink ½ cup of water every hour. If you are working out, or the weather is hot or humid or very cold and dry, drink 1 cup of water every hour; after all you are losing water to your workout or your environment.
Drink 1 cup of water per hour during your workout. The best way to do this is drink 1/2 cup before you workout, 1/2 cup during every 30 minutes of working out and 1/2 cup after you are done working out.